Ch. 4

"Does anyone have anything?" Gibbs asked, as he headed to his desk with a coffee in hand. When no one answered right away, he glanced up quickly and at his team. "Come on! Does anyone have anything?"

"Uh sorry Boss," Tim began, turning the monitor back on as Gibbs stood and walked over. "Our new victim is Ensign Kevin Coble. According to Ducky, he was killed between 12 and 2 this morning, same as our last victim."

"Did some digging, Boss, and he had been on a date last night with this woman, Talia Malone. She is the manager at a local book store. Apparently, that was how they met, was at her work. He came into the store, and as they say, the rest was history," Tony added.

"They were last seen at Zaytinya's, the same restaurant our first victim and his girlfriend went to. The credit card receipt shows that he paid at 11:13."

Gibbs went back to his desk before turning to McGee and DiNozzo. "Bring her in you two. Ziva, reach out to the restaurant and try to figure out why our two dead sailors ate at the same restaurant and were killed within an hour or two of them leaving."

"Yes Boss," all three replied in unison before Tony and Tim left and Ziva turned to her computer.

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After the girlfriend had been brought in, and Gibbs had talked to her, they realized that they were stalling again on the case, just as they had the first time.

Gibbs told them to go home, so they could be rested for the next morning to begin working on the case again.

Tim had sent Matt and Beth texts, inviting them over to his apartment for beer, pizza and a movie. He arrived home, showered and changed, so he would be clean and presentable when his company arrived.

He had just pulled a MIT t-shirt on when there was a knock on the front door. He looked through the peephole, smiled and opened the door. Tim leaned down, kissing Beth quickly before taking the pizza out of her hands and heading to the kitchen.

"Nice to see you too, Agent McGee," she said, giggling as she shut the front door. She kicked her shoes off, left her purse on his computer chair and followed him into the kitchen. He set the pizza on the island, next to the plates, napkins and forks. He had three pilsner glasses out, awaiting the beer that Matt was bringing.

He turned, catching Beth around the waist. He twirled her for a moment before replying, "I missed you today."

She smiled, "I missed you too. So what are we watching tonight? I hope nothing too manly."

"I believe Matt agreed to Top Gun," he replied, smiling as well. He let her go when another knock was heard at the front door.

Tim opened the door, "Hey Matt! I'm glad you could make it. Beth is already here."

Matt handed off the beer, taking his shoes off. "I had to stop to get the booze," he replied, closing the door. He followed his childhood friend into the kitchen.

"Matthew Bower, Elizabeth Morgan."

"Nice to meet you finally Matt. Tim has told me so much about you," Beth said, holding her hand out. Matt took it and the two shook. "Its nice to meet you too Beth. Tim has been telling me about you too."

"Okay, lets get eating and drinking!" Tim interrupted, pouring a beer for each of them.

They grabbed their food and beers and headed into the living room to watch the movie.

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The next morning, Gibbs was the last one in the bullpen, having stopped to get his morning coffee. As soon as he had entered the bullpen, he saw that his team working on their computers, trying to figure out the complex case they were facing. All clues lead nowhere, and they were no closer to the killer than they had been with the first body that was found.

Gibbs had just sat down when his phone rang. "Yeah, Gibbs," he answered. He paused for a moment, listening to the voice on the other end. "On our way."

He stood, grabbing his gun out of his desk, "Gear up, we have another dead sailor."

"Where Boss?" Tony asked as he, Ziva and Tim grabbed their guns and gear.

"Anacostia Park."

The area was becoming all too familiar for six people who arrived on the scene. They found the seaman, about fifty yards from where the last body had been found.

"Duck," Gibbs began, but was cut off.

"Same as before Jethro. He was killed here, around the same time frame, from 12-2 this morning," Ducky noted as he and Palmer were getting a preliminary report.

"McGee? David? DiNozzo? Anything?"

Tim took photos of body and area surrounding. "This is strange Boss. It looks like the first two."

"Footprints and all, see?" Ziva pointed out, noting the same footprints leaving the scene and heading toward the river.

"Let's finish here and head back. We have to find this guy," Gibbs replied, heading for the vehicles.

Ducky and Palmer removed the body from the scene as the three team mates finished processing the scene before leaving.

Again, the sinister figure was watching them, smiling evilly as they left the scene. "Now is the time," he said softly, heading for a meeting.

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They had been back to the Navy Yard for over an hour, quiet as they all were tracking down possible leads. They found out that Seaman Luke Blackwell had been to the same restaurant as the previous two victims, and going missing around the same time as the previous two. They brought in the seaman's girlfriend, only to come to the same conclusion, that she didn't know what happened and was deeply in love with her boyfriend.

It was the tenth time Tim had gone through the pictures from the crime scenes when he noticed something familiar, something that had not struck him before, But was now beating him over the head. He sucked in a deep breath, not realizing it was loud enough for Gibbs to hear.

"What is it McGee?" Gibbs asked, glancing up at his youngest agent. His head was hurting from trying to wrap his brain around why the poor sailors were being murdered after they had gone on dates with their steady girlfriends.

Tim glanced up, his green eyes wide with horror. "Boss, I was looking over the pictures from the crime scene again and realized that it seems familiar to me, really familiar. But it wasn't until now that I realized why. In my fourth book, Old Vendetta, that park is where three murders are committed."

"Oh dear God, not again," Ziva muttered under her breath as three pairs of eyes trained on a very flustered McGee.

"What happens at the park in your book, McGee?" Gibbs asked, his anger beginning to boil, not at poor Tim, who just was doing something that helped him unwind after a long day at the office, but at a killer who used plot lines from his youngest team members books to commit murder.

"A childhood friend of McGregor's turns out to be a serial killer, the rejection of his girlfriend fueling his anger. He starts by murdering his steady girlfriend when she turns him down after he asks her to marry him. So he targets seemingly happy couples and kills the boyfriends in Anacostia Park. He kills three men, a petty officer, ensign and seaman before it is discovered that the killer is the childhood friend of McGregor's that had come back into his life just after the first murder so he can keep tabs on the investigation and throw suspicion off of himself."

"How do they find out who the killer is?" Tony asks, as he stands next to McGee's desk. Tim pinched the bridge of his nose, willing the headache that was slowly beginning to form to go away.

"He tries to kill McGregor's new girlfriend, telling him that he only has a half hour to find her before she dies. This is after the third victim is found in the park," Tim says, his eyes growing wider.

"What is it McGee?" Gibbs asks, not liking the look of pure terror in Tim's eyes, reflecting to his face.

"He has a new girlfriend," Ziva said quietly, looking from Gibbs to Tim and back.

"And an old friend of mine, Matt Bower, knocked on my door a week after the first body and three days before the second one," Tim added as Gibbs phone rang.

Gibbs picked up the phone, putting it on speaker, "Gibbs."

"Tell McGee, that if he doesn't find his girlfriend in thirty minutes, she's dead."